Melvin
Melvin is the nephew of Queen Elfaria and cousin to Princess Mercedes. He attempted to overthrow Elfaria's daughter Mercedes and rule Ringford. He is Oswald's adoptive father, taking Oswald in after finding him wandering around in the forest. He is also the creator/founder of the Shadow Knights. Personality As expected of a member of Ringford's royal family, Melvin takes on the qualities of an aristocrat and a politician. Intelligent, competent, and charismatic, Melvin's actions, despite seeming rather Machiavellian, are well-measured and calculated, designed to be in what he believed to be of Ringford's best interest. Even after the Vanir's initial defeat to the Aesir in the Cauldron War, he was extremely calm in the face of adversity. He was courteous and cultured, showing the proper respect to his superiors and subordinates, at least superficially. At the same time, Melvin was also extremely ambitious and ruthless. He created the cursed Psypher weapon, the Belderiver, in hopes to strengthening Ringford's armed forces, and sacrificed his adoptive son, Oswald, to see if the boy was the proper master for the blade. He had little patience of dissent, and had Brom, his conscience-troubled blacksmith, exiled to the Land of Misery and Despair after the dwarf blacksmith revealed the weapon's cursed nature to Oswald. A skilled liar and smooth-talker, Melvin was able to repeatedly ward off Oswald's worries that the Shadow Knight may have been betrayed by his own adoptive father, worries that later turned out to be valid. There were many who believed that the experienced and competent Melvin would be a better successor to Elfaria after her death, as opposed to the young and inexperienced princess, Mercedes, who was the rightful heir to the throne. Melvin, who was described to have had aspirations for the throne even during Elfaria's rule, usurped Mercedes' regime in her absence and launched a coup d'etat. Despite the rebellion, Melvin seemed to possess a certain degree of respect and concern for his aunt, Queen Elfaria, and was genuinely concerned about the welfare of the nation. He did not actually plan to initiate a rebellion until after Mercedes took the throne. Despite Melvin's dying claim that he never saw his adoptive son Oswald as anything more than a tool for the crown of Ringford, it is implied by King Gallon during the Armageddon that Melvin did rescue and raise Oswald with pure intentions at some point in the past. Story Melvin's backstory is not elaborated upon, and other than the fact that he is nephew to Queen Elfaria and cousin to Mercedes, little is known about his past. What is known, however, is that when Edgar, a prince of Titania and son of King Gallon, was exiled for attempting to marry a common girl, assassins were sent after him and his family of a wife and a child, who was Oswald. Although Edgar and his wife lost their lives to the assassins, Melvin was able to save an infant Oswald's life, whom he took as an adoptive son. It is unknown whether or not Melvin intervened before Oswald would have been killed, or if Melvin found Oswald by chance. Melvin soon enlisted the help of a dwarf blacksmith, Brom, in order to create a Psypher weapon to empower Ringford's army. The Belderiver, therefore, was created with the power of Odette, Queen of the Dead; the weapon granted great power to its wielder, but also leached away the user's soul. This lead to one of his most powerful creations ever, the Shadow Knights. But there were several unsuccessful attempts made to find a suitable master for the Belderiver. Melvin was about to give up until the blade was eventually given to his adopted son, Oswald, who could wield it proficiently and became the fearsome Shadow Knight. Seeing his success Melvin was eager to mass produce Psypher weapons for Ringford's army and to train more soldiers into becoming Shadow Knights and revive his old Shadow Knight organization. He repeatedly sought Queen Elfaria's approval for such an action, attempting to prove the power of the Belderiver several times by having Oswald kill the dragon Hindel, infiltrate Nebulapolis, and participate in the Cauldron War. Brom, however, grew increasingly guilty of creating the Belderiver, knowing the weapon was sapping away at Oswald's soul like it did to all the others. However, when Brom informed Oswald of such, Melvin exiled the dwarf to the Land of Misery and Despair to serve under Queen Odette. After providing false reassurance to Oswald that everything would work out alright, Melvin helped Elfaria with preparations for the war against the Aesir, led by Demon King Odin, but the Vanir experienced a devastating defeat when Odin manages to kill Elfaria. With Elfaria passed away, the crown is passed to her young and inexperienced daughter, Mercedes, Melvin's own cousin. Despite having been asked by Elfaria to assist Mercedes when she became queen, Melvin, having always had ambitions for the throne, was unwilling to hand power over to the incompetent Mercedes, and launched a coup d'etat/military mutiny in Mercedes' absence with the support of many of Ringford's nobles and soldiers, as well as the Wise Man Beldor, whose assistance he procured with Oswald. However, Mercedes' counterattack proved to be more devastating than expected, and Oswald's power was drained by the Halja seeking his soul through the Belderiver, and the rebellion ended in failure. Mortally wounded, Melvin is confronted by a weakened Oswald, who demands to know what he had been to Melvin. Melvin died ridiculing Oswald, telling him that he was no more than a tool to the throne. After uttering his true name, Melvin passes away as his body dissolves into Phozons, and the rebellion ends. Legacy Melvin's actions continued to haunt Oswald even after his death. Because he had taunted Oswald, having seen Melvin as a father, by saying the Shadow Knight had never been anything but a "tool" to him, Oswald develops loathing towards all forms of manipulation. When he attempts to seek the love of Gwendolyn, his bride as promised by Odin, Oswald repeatedly insists that he will not treat her as an "object", He spitefully kills Skuldi after realizing the Wise Man had attempted to use Gwendolyn as a tool to ignite war between Odin and Onyx, and expressed disgust towards Onyx when Oswald believed the Inferno King saw Gwendolyn as merely a political tool (although Onyx did have an obsession about her of sorts). However, when Oswald eventually learns of his lineage from King Gallon during the Armageddon, he is told that Melvin was the reason why the assassins, sent after Oswald and his parents, were not able to kill the infant Oswald. This leads to Oswald wondering if Melvin had originally raised him with pure intentions. Trivia *Nidhogg, Melvin's true name, is the name of a serpent who tried to eat the roots of the world tree, Yggdrasil in Norse mythology. This is a reference to Mercedes, whose true name is Yggdrasil, as Melvin attempts to sabotage Mercedes' rule in a rebellion. *'Melvin' has been known to be compared to Gul'dan from the Warcraft Franchise who was the creator of The Death Knights '''and '''The Ogre Magi/Ogre Mages. Melvin and Gul'dan the Destroyer of Dreams were both quite similar. Aside from the fact that Gul'dan is an Orc, a clan Chieftan, advisor, Elite Necrolyte/Necromencer and a full ranked Warlock/Diabolist and Melvin is a fairy and just an advisor, as well as the fact that Gul'dan is mad/insane and Melvin is only overly ambitious. *Both Gul'dan and Melvin were cruel traitors and unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow their leaders (for Gul'dan it was Orgrim Doomhammer and for Melvin it was his cousin, Mercedes).They both created powerful Classes of Warriors (For Melvin it was the Shadow Knights and for Gul'dan it was The Death Knights '''and The Ogre Magi/Ogre Mages'''). Also the only thing they achived was making their children suffer (for Melvin it was Oswald and for Gul'dan it was Garona Halforcen. Noted: Oswald isn't Melvin's true son and Garona isn't the daughter of Gul'dan. Technically, they made people who loved and looked up to them as fathers, suffer). Category:Characters Category:Royalty Category:Antagonists